Portable shuffleboard court



\o\ o o o 0 MW 1 o o o M Q o o E o o 0 V K O O O N 4 o 0 0 o o o I 5 a O O O U o o o o o 8 v o o 0 o o o o o o o o o o 5 w 0 o o o o 0 K o o o o o 0 \0 0 o o o o 0 0 0 0 o o o o o o o Y ON 0 o B o o o o o E o o o H 0 o A O O O O 0 O o V lll I QI \5ISII \IILIII 3. \hl lwklklwslfihI I O O O O O m o ON 0 o NQ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 m m\k o o o o o o 0 o 0 a Jan. 11, 1966 O O 0 0 0000000 00000 0 00 00 0 000 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 000 0 000 00 K000 00 no 0000 O O 00000000000000000000000 00000 00 000 O O 0000000 0 00000 0000 00000 0 0 00 O O 0 %0 0 o o o a o o a o o o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 o w o O O O O Q J 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 O o-unv r OOQOOOOO 0O OD 000 COCO O OO CC 0000000 00 0000 o 00 0 0 03: 0000 0 0000 00 00000000 0 0 OOO C60 0 0000 00 0 000000 00 O O O O 0 O OO O O E O 0 0 ooo w oco 00000000 0 00 O 0 0 o 000 on 000 0 O Q.\ Om O/C 0 3 F 0 %0 0 0 o o qwqlvc 0 00 0 0 0 0 000 0 0 0 0 C & CO (0000000 0 000 on 00000000000 00 0 000000000 0 00 0 no 000 0 OJ 0000000000 00 00 00 00000 0 n -OOO00000000 00 0 00 0 00 O O uaLoooaoooooooo 00 00 00000 0 O O 0 0 000000000000000 0 0000000 000 JdujvQ oouoo oooooo 000 000 30 0 O O O flOoooo ooooouoo 00 00000 0 O C O O O O O O 0 0 o o ofiu n o o 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00000 0 o oooooooooo oo oooo 000090000 00 o United States Patent 3,228,692 PORTABLE SHUFFLEBOARD COURT Alvah F. Brubaker, Glenrock, Wyo. Filed Oct. 23, 1964, Ser. No. 406,041 1 Claim. (Cl. 273-126) This invention relates to a portable shuffleboard court designed for both outdoor and indoor use.

Shuflleboard installations are usually permanent outdoor installations exposed to the weather, which is not a prohibitive situation, in clement weather areas, but is not practical in colder areas subject to prohibitively low temperatures and snow. As consequence, outdoor shuffieboarding in inclement areas is substantially nonexistent.

An object of the invention is the provison of a portable shuflleboard court which is adapted to be laid out upon any suitable surface, outdoors or indoors, and to be removed and stored when not in use, with very little effort and trouble, so that shufileboard can be played and promoted in all climate areas.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a court of the character indicated above, which is provided with a permanent friction reducing playing surface, which does not require waxing or other treatments commonly required to be applied thereto in order to reduce the excessive and objectionable friction between the discs or blocks, propelled thereover, which renders playing the game on conventional shufileboards overtaxing for the less vigorous and the elderly.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a shufileboard court of the present invention, the dimensions of which are proportioned to the dimensions of a conventional shuttleboard playing surface;

FIGURE 2 is an edge elevation of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view of an end of the court; and,

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary longitudinal section taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 3.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the illustrated shuffleboard court comprises an elongated rectangular plate or sheet 10, made of lightweight metal, or of plastic material, or combinations of any other hard material, which is six feet Wide and thirty-nine feet long, to correspond to the measurements of a conventional shufileboard court. The plate should not be more than onequarter of an inch in thickness, in the interest of lightweight and portability.

The playing surface 12 of the plate 10 has suitably marked thereon conventional off areas 14, inwardly of which are scoring layouts 16, and transverse limit lines 18. The playing surface 12 is factory-polished to provide a substantially permanent frictionless finish, which does not require frequent waxing or like treatments.

For the dual purposes of further enhancing the frictionless character of the playing surface, and of reducing the over-all weight of the court and facilitating portability thereof, the off areas 14 and the scoring layouts 16 are formed with small perforations or holes 20, not larger in diameter than one-eighth of an inch. The small holes 20 are, as shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, evenly distributed over the mentioned areas, and are spaced from each other at distances not substantially greater than their diameters.

Because of the reduction of playing surface area produced by the presence of the small holes 20, and reduction of suction between moving shufileboard discs or blocks characteristic of a conventional shuffleboard court playing surface, and the highly polished condition of the playing surface 12, discs or blocks can be propelled thereover with much reduced effort. The small holes 20 are held down in size to eliminate the possibility of cues catching therein.

In the area 22, between the scoring layouts, the plate 10 is formed with larger perforations or holes 24, which are substantially larger in diameter than the small holes 20, for the purpose of more greatly reducing disc or block suction and similar reduction of sliding contact between the discs or blocks with the playing surface 12.

Thus, the middle area of the court, which the discs reach with dying momentum, in ordinary courts, a substantially frictionless condition obtains, which enables less vigorously propelled discs to easily reach the opposing scoring layout, which would ordinarily fail to reach the same.

What is claimed is:

A portable shufileboard court comprising an elongated rectangular lightweight sheet of conventional shuflleboard dimensions, said sheet being of relatively small thickness and having a highly-polished playing surface, said surface being formed at the end portions thereof with similar scoping layouts, the end portions having evenly distributed and closely uniformly-spaced perforation means of relatively small diameter, said perforation means being smaller in diameter than and spaced from each other at distances substantially less than the diameter of a shufileboard disc adapted to be propelled over the surface to thereby reduce both the weight of said sheet and friction and suction caused by the sliding contact of the disc with the playing surface.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,043,956 11/1912 Miller 273-123 3,038,726 6/1962 Hesidence 273 X 3,065,968 11/1962 Gelencser 273126 3,147,977 9/1964 Glassman 273126 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,095,172 12/ 1954 France.

RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner. 

